Cyclometer clock

ABSTRACT

A cyclometer clock having a seconds-indicating unit which is driven rotationally at a constant speed. An intermittent motiontransmitting and speed-reducing unit is driven by the secondsindicating unit and drives a minutes-indicating unit and a hourindicating unit independently of each other. The time-indication units can be variably set and time indication corrections be made thereon independently of each other. An alarm system variably set is enabled and disenabled by the hour-indicating unit.

United States Patent i191 im 3,922,843 Kobayashi [451 Dec. 2, 1975 [541 CYCLOMETER CLOCK 2.748.560 6/1956 Clark 58/125 C 3,279,166 10/1966 Funak 58/125 C [75] Inventor: JMaSam Kobayash" Yachyf 3,823,552 7/1974 Boyles 58/7 x apan [73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosha, Primary E ammer*Lawrence R. Franklin Japan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Robert E. Burns; [22] Filed: June 14, 1974 Emmanuel J. Lobato; Bruce L. Adams [2l] Appl. No.: 479,566

, {57} ABSTRACT 30 F'AlrP"fDz l orelgn pp lc'a .on non y a a A cyclometer clock having a seconds-indicating unit June 16.1973 Japan 48-68871 which is driven rotationally at a constant speed. An june i6 J'dpan 48'68872 intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing une 6, l Japan 48-68873 unit is driven by the seconds indicating unit and drives o a minutes-indicating unit and a hour-indicating unit [2] 58,16 D 58H25 independently of each other. The time-indication units {58} Fr.. id R -125/C can be variably set and time indication corrections be l le o earc 587 165 22 126 E made thereon independently of each other, An alarm system variably set is enabled and disenabled by the [56] References Cited hour-lndicatmg unit.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures 1,611,355 12/1926 Campbell 58/7 X 26 l 1" ii z 4l 25- ..l' 42 2 a Sheet 2 of 3 U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1975 U.S. Patent Dec. 2, 1975 sheet 3 @f3 3,922,843

CYCLOMETER CLOCK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to timepieces and more particularly to a cyclometer clock.

Cyclometer clocks fitted with a seconds indicating drum are known. These known clocks are so constructed and arranged that the hour display drum thereof is rotated a predetermined angle as the minute drum of the minutes-indicating unit makes a complete revolution or after a lapse of 60 minutes. After this lapse the hour indication means or unit is shifted by one digit. When it is desired to correct a time indication with these known clock devices it is necessary to rotate the minute drum and thereby rotate the hour drum for introducing a time correction as to the hour indication. This requires a complicated and inefficient correcting operation for the time indicating unit. Furthermore this tends to make possible the introduction of errors in time corrections.

Furthermore the known cyclometer clocks have an alarm time setting which is generally quite inaccurate and can have an error in the alarm time set thereon. The error may be in the order of ten to twenty minutes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a cyclometer clock that avoids and obviates the above-mentioned drawbacks inherent in the conventional cyclometer timepieces.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a cyclometer clock in which the hour and minutes indicating units can be corrected or have time corrections there made independently of one another.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a cyclometer clock in which the alarm time setting unit is constructed so that accurate time settings can be made.

The cylcometer according to the invention has a seconds-indicating unit continuously driven. An intermittent speed-reducing and motion-transmitting unit drives a minutes-indicating unit and an hour-indicating unit from the seconds-indicating unit. Provision is made for making time corrections on the minutesindicating unit and the hour-indicating unit independently of each without affecting the movements of the other related time-indicating units.

The cylcometer also has an alarm unit that can be set accurately and in many increments of time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and advantages will appear from the following description of an example of the invention, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a developed sectional view of a cyclometer according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a section view, on an enlarged scale, taken along section line II-II of FIG. l.

FIG. 3 is a section view, on an enlarged scale, taken along section line III-III of FIG. l.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged scale side elevation views of gear arrangements in the clock in FIG. l.

FIG. 6 is a front elevation view of a portion of the cyclometer clock in FIG. 1 and on an enlarged scale.

FIG. 7 is a side elevation view of an alarm drum unit of the alarm unit according to. the invention.

FIG. 8 is a side elevation view of an alarm stop mechanism in the cyclometer clock of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in the drawings, FIG. 1, a base plate 1 has a constant speed driving motor 2 mounted thereon with a driving shaft 3 driving a seconds-indicating drum 4 of the seconds-indicating unit. An intermittent speedreducing and motion-transmitting unit A is driven from the seconds-indicating unit. The seconds-indicating drum 4 has a plurality of projecting teeth 5 on a side thereof. Two such projecting teeth are provided on the drum 4 in the present embodiment. A gear 6 loosely mounted on an arbor 7 is engaged with the projection teeth 5. The gear 6 is rotated intermittently by engagement with the teeth 5 of the seconds-indicating drum 4.

As shown in FIG. 2 a pin 8 is mounted on a side surface of the gear 6 and pivotally mounts a pawl 9 engaged with the teeth of a ratchet wheel l0 that is mounted loosely on the arbor 7. A spring 11 abuts on the backside of the pawl 9 and is mounted on the gear 6. The transmission of rotation from the gear 6 to the ratchet wheel 10 is effected only in one direction. That is in a direction to rotate the ratchet wheel 10 clockwise as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2. Two laterally projecting teeth 12 are formed on the side of the ratchet wheel l0. These teeth are engageable by a pinion 14 rotatable on an arbor 13. Rotation is transmitted from the ratchet wheel 10 to the pinion 14 intermittently and in a speed reducing mode. The pinion 14 engages with the gear 15 mounted fixed on the arbor 7 so that the gear 15 and a pinion 16 formed integrally therewith are rotated at a reduced speed.

The rotation force from the pinion 16 is divided and applied to an hour-indicating unit B and a minutesindicating unit C. The pinion 16 formed integrally with the gear l5 as described above meshes with the gear 17 which in turn meshes with the gear 19 mounted fixed on an arbor 18. This gear 17 is adapted to be connected with and disengaged from the gear 19 by means of an unidirectional coupling comprising a resilient member 20 secured to the end face of the gear 19. A detent 21 projects from a side surface of the gear 17. The ar rangement is such that the rotation of the gear 16 is transmitted to the arbor 18 by way of gear 17, detent 21, resilient member 20 and gear 19. But the rotation of the arbor 18 is not transmitted to the gear 16. The resilient member 20 then merely rides over the detent 21.

The hour-indicating unit B comprises an hour drum 23 fixed to the arbor 18 by means of a pin 22. The hour drum 23 mounts a plurality of angularly spaced hourindicating plates 24 which are rotated so that they are presented one by one for indicating the hour on the hour drum 23. The number and other details of this hour indicating plates 24 is described hereinafter. An engaging flexible piece 25 mounted on a fixed plate 26 regulates the movement of the hour indicating plates 24.

In the minutes-indicating unit C a gear 28 meshes with the pinion 27 fixed to the end of the arbor 7. A minutes-indicating drum 29 is mounted fixed to a side surface of the gear 28 and the drum 29 is mounted loosely on the arbor 18. The minutes-indicating drum 29 has a plurality of angularly spaced minutes-indicating plates 30 which are rotated into position one-by-one for minute indications under the control of a resilient piece 31 as in the case of the hour indications on the hour drum 23. Other details of the hour-indicating plates 30 will be described herinafter.

The cyclometer clock of the invention is provided with a correction unit D for correcting the hour and minute time indications and thereby correcting the hour and minute indication means. A base plate 32 spaced from the base plate 1 mounts the various arbors jointly with the basel plate 1. An arbor 33 extends across these two plates and a sleeve 36 is mounted circumferentially thereof for rotation. A dial or knob 34 is fixed on the right hand end of the arbor 33 for introducing minute indication corrections to the clock. A gear 35 is mounted fixed to the opposite end of the arbor 33. This gear 35 meshes with the gear 28 as shown in FIG. 4 although these two gears are shown in FIG. 1 to be separated from one another in a developed view. By this arrangement and the unidirectional coupling comprising the pawl 9 and the ratchet wheel 10 the intermittent speed-reducing and motiontransmitting unit, the motor operation is not affected by the minute indication correction operation performed with the aid of the dial 34 as will be explained hereinafter in greater detail. I

The dial 37 secured to the sleeve 36 rotational on the arbor 33 is provided for correcting the hour indications. The pinion 38 secured to the sleeve 36 meshes with a gear 40 secured to a stud shaft 39, FIG. 5. The gear 40 meshes in turn with a stepped gear 19. The resilient member 20 is secured on the rim of the reduced diameter tooth portion of the steppedgear 19 so as to be engaged with the detent 21 provided on the gear 17. The detent 21 has a sectional shape of a right-angle triangle and is secured to a side of the gear 17 at one of the two sides including the right angle. The resilient piece 20 is engaged with the detent 21 in such a way that rotation of the gear 16 is transmitted to the arbor 18 by engagement of the resilient piece 20 with the upright surface of the detent 21but the rotation of the arbor 18 is not transmitted to the gear 17, the resilient piece 20 merely slips over the inclined surface of the detent 21. In this way the motor operation is not affected by the hour indication correcting operation that is performed with the aid of the dial 37 byway ofa unidirectional coupling comprising the resilient piece 20 with the detent 2l.

An alarm mechanism E is provided on the cyclometer according to the invention. An alarm set drum 41 is mounted loosely on the left end of the arbor 18. A dial 42 for alarm time setting is mounted flxedly on the drum 41. On the inner periphery of the alarm setting drum 4l are formed a plurality of slots 41a, as by knurling, and are disposed at an equal angular distance from one another, for example, an angle interval of 2.5. A click spring 64 is mounted so as to engage with the slots 41a of the alarm set drum 41. Two holes 23a are bored through one of the side plates-of the hour drum 23. A rotor 43 is mounted rotatably on the arbor 18 between the alarm setting drum 41 and the hour drum 23. A spring 44 is disposed under compression within a central annular recess or groove formed on a side surface of the rotor 43 so that the rotor is biased at all times towards the left in FIG. 1. Two guide pins 45 are mounted on the side surface of the rotor 43 and inserted slidably through the holes 23a. Thus the rotor 43 is interlocked in rotation with the drum 23 and slideable axially on the arbor 18. A plurality of bosses 46 are formed on the other side surface of the rotor in position so as to snap into corresponding recesses' 47 on a confronting side surface ofthe alarm setting drum 41 during the course of rotation of the rotor 43.

As shown in FIG. 6, a flat plate 49 is secured to a base plate 48, and an alarm setting pointer 50 is secured to the flat plate 49. As shown in FIG. 1, the bosses 46 formed on the rotor 43 are rotated synchronously with the hour drum 23 so as to slide normally on the flat side surface of the drum 41. When the bosses 46 snap into the corresponding recesses 47, the rotor 43 is urged to move towards the left in FIG. l under the force of the compression spring 44. A lever 52 is pivotally mounted by a stud shaft 51 so as to be engaged at one end with the side surface of the rotor 43. The other end of the lever 52 is connected by a pin 53 to another lever 54 pivotally mounted by a stud shaft 55. The pin 53 is mounted on the other lever 54 and extends into an elongated groove as shown. The lever 54 is formed with a through-hole 56 halfway between the pin 53 and the stud shaft 55. A spring 57 is retained at one end at this through-hole and at the other by some stationary part of the clock frame so that the lever 56 is urged to rotate clockwise about the stud shaft 55. On the other hand, the lever 52 is urged to rotate counterclockwise by the above-mentioned pin-and-groove connection with the lever 54, so that the left-hand end of the lever 52, FIG. l, abuts on the right-hand lateral surface of the rotor 43. The lever 54 has an upright portion 54a abutting normally with a small pressure on a vibrating plate 58 so that the latter is suppressed from vibrating and ringing an alarm bell, not shown. This vibrating plate 58 is associated with the driving coil ofthe driving motor 2 so as to be driven in vibration unless abutted by the upright portion 54a, as described above.

As shown in FIG. 8, an alarm stop lever 59 is carried rotatably on a stud shaft 60 so as to be engaged with and disengaged from the lever 54. A positioning hole 61 is formed in this lever 54, and a boss 63 is provided on a click spring 62 at such a position that the boss 63 may be engaged with said hole 61 with the pivoting movement of the lever 54.

The operation of the alarm mechanism of the present invention is as follows: The constant rate rotation of the driving motor 2 is transmitted in a speed-reducing mode to a seconds-indicating drum 4 which thus makes a complete revolution in 1 minute. The gear 6 engaged by the two teeth 5 projecting from one lateral surface of the drum 4 is thereby driven intermittently and rotated once in 10 minutes, that is, at a speed equal to one-tenth of the speed of the seconds drum 4. Thus, the ratchet wheel 10 interlocked in rotation with the gear 6 is also rotated once in ten minutes` Thus, the teeth 12 formed onv the side surface of the ratchet wheel 10 are engaged with the pinion 14 once in 10 minutes, so as to transmit rotation from the ratchet wheel 10 to the pinion 14, which is thus rotated intermittently a predetermined angle at intervals of 10 minutes, so as to transmit the intermittent rotation thereof to the gear l5 and thence to the pinion 27 and the gear 28 meshing with the pinion 27. The gear 28 engaged with the pinion 27 rotated intermittently as described in the foregoing is adapted to rotate intermittently at the rate of 6 each minute. Thus, the sixty minute plates 30 mounted at intervals of 6 on the minute drum 29, mounted fixedly on the lateral surface of the gear 28, are turned oneby-one each minute for indicating the minutes.

The gear 17 coupled with the arbor 18 for driving the 'latter is adapted to rotate intermittently by the intermittent speed-reducing and motion-transmitting unit A at the rate of 2.5 in l0 minutes.

Each 2 hour indicating plates 24, upper and lower, are provided in the cyclometer clock of the present invention for indicating each hour of the day. On the hour drum 23, there are mounted 48 hour indicating plates 24, so that each indicating plate 24, upper and lower, is turned, upon rotation through 7.5 of the hour drum 23 carrying the indicating plates 24. Since the arbor 18 and the hour-indicating drum 23 mounted thereon are rotated intermittently through 2.5 in 10 minutes, as described above, an upper plate 24, for instance, is turned into position when the arbor 18 is rotated intermittently thrice or rotated through 7.5, that is, at intervals of 30 minutes. A resilient engaging piece 25 is provided for controlling the movement of the hour indicating plates 24 by engaging with the upper edges of the plates 24.

When desired to correct the time indication means on the minute and hour drums, the dial 34 for correction of the minute-indication means is rotated manually for rotating the arbor 33. The minute'drum 29 is rotated for correctingthe time indicating means by way of the gear 3S mounted fixedly to the arbor 33 and the gear 28 engaging with the gear 35.

At this time, rotation of the gear 28 is transmitted to the ratchet wheel by way of the gears 27, l5 and 14, but such rotation is not transmitted to the gear 6, since the pawl 9 is not engaged with the ratchet wheel l0 but merely slips over the teeth of the ratchet wheel l0. Thus, the motor operation is not affected adversely by a time-correcting operation.

When the dial 37 for correcting the hour-indication means is rotated manually, the sleeve 36 is driven into rotation and the hour drum 23 is thereby rotated for correcting the hour-indication means by way of the pinion 38, gear 40, pinion 19 and the arbor 18. At this time, the resilient piece 20 fixedly mounted on the pinion 19 is not engaged with the detent 21 but merely slips over the inclined surface of the detent 21. Thus, the rotation of the pinion 19 is not transmitted to the gear 17 coupled with the driving motor 2. In this way, the driving motor 2 is protected from harmful effects of the time-correcting operation. Moreover, the operation for correcting the hour-indication means is performed independently of the operation for correcting the minute-indication means.

Referring to the operation of the alarm mechanism, the dial 42 for setting the alarm time is rotated manually to rotate the alarm setting drum 41 until the pointer 50 indicates the desired alarm time. The alarm time can be set in intervals of ten minutes, since the slots 41a are formed on the inner peripheral surface of the drum 41 at an angular distance of 2.5 from one another.

On the other hand, the rotor 43 is interlocked with the hour drum 23 and rotated therewith by rotation of the arbor 18. At the alarm time as set with the alarm drum 41, the bosses 46 formed on the lateral surface of the rotor 43 snap into the corresponding recesses 47 provided in the hour drum 41, the rotor 43 is then urged to move towards the left under the force of the compression spring 44, as shown in FIG. 6.

The lever 52 is now pivoted counterclockwise with the stud shaft 5l as its pivotal center. Simultaneously therewith, the lever 54 is pivoted clockwise under the force of the spring 57, with the stud shaft 55 as its center of rotation, so that the upright portion 54a of the lever 54 is disengaged from the vibrating plate 58, which is now subjected to vibration so as to produce the alarm sound. After the lapse of a certain time, the bosses 46 are disengaged from the recesses 47 formed in the drum 4l, the rotor 43 is then urged to move towards the right against the force of the spring 44, as shown in FIG. l. The lever 52 is now pivoted clockwise with the stud shaft 5l as center, and the lever 54 is pivoted counterclockwise against the force of the spring 57, with the stud shaft 55 as center. The vibrating plate 58 is retained again by the upright portion 54a of the lever 54 to stop the alarm sound.

According to the present invention, as described above, the seconds-indicating unit is associated operatively with the minute and hour indicating units by way of the intermittent motion-transmitting and speedreducing unit, thus enabling an accurate indication of time without any appreciable error in indication. Moreover, since the correction for minute indication and that for hour indication are performed independently of one another, the operation for correcting the time indication may be conducted easily in a short period of time. In addition, the alarm time can be set accurately to shorter time intervals than in the case of the conventional devices.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A leaf-type cyclometer clock comprising a seconds-indicating unit rotated at a constant speed, a constant speed motor rotatably driving said secondsindicating unit, an intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit driven by said secondsindicating unit, a minutes-indicating unit intermittently driven by said intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit at the rate of 6 each minute, an hour-indicating unit intermittently driven stepwise by said intermittent motion-transmitting and speedreducing unit upon lapse of a predetermined number of minutes, means to correct the time indications of said seconds-indicating unit and said hour-indicating unit independently of each other, an alarm unit actuated by said hour-indicating unit, and the alarm time being set in intervals of said lapse of a predetermined number of minutes in which said hour-indicating unit performs one stepwise rotation` 2. A cyclometer clock comprising, a secondsindicating unit rotated at a constant speed, an intermit tent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit driven by said seconds-indicating unit, a minutesindicating unit and an hour-indicating unit both independently driven by said intermittent motiontransmitting and speed-reducing unit, an alarm unit actuated by said hour-indicating unit comprising a first drum manually settable angularly to set the alarm time of said alarm unit, a second drum driven by said hourindicating unit and biased toward said first drum, both said first and second drums having means jointly defining means for enabling said second drum to move axially toward said first drum in dependence upon the an: gular position of said first drum for enabling the alarm unit and for moving axially away from said first drum for disenabling said alarm unit, said alarm unit having a vibrating member for effecting an alarm, and lever means enabled and disenabled by the axial movement of said second drum for enabling and disenabling said' received in said recesses and movable out 0f said recesses for moving said second drum axially away from said first drum as said second drum is rotatably driven.

4. A cyclometer clock according to claim 3, in which said lever means comprises a pair of levers comprising a first lever sensing the position of said second drum and a second lever actuated by the first lever in dependence upon the axial position of said second drum.

:n i a: c l 

1. A leaf-type cyclometer clock comprising a seconds-indicating unit rotated at a constant speed, a constant speed motor rotatably driving said seconds-indicating unit, an intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit driven by said seconds-indicating unit, a minutes-indicating unit intermittently driven by said intermittent motion-transmitting and speedreducing unit at the rate of 6* each minute, an hour-indicating unit intermittently driven stepwise by said intermittent motiontransmitting and speed-reducing unit upon lapse of a predetermined number of minutes, means to correct the time indications of said seconds-indicating unit and said hourindicating unit independently of each other, an alarm unit actuated by said hour-indicating unit, and the alarm time being set in intervals of said lapse of a predetermined number of minutes in which said hour-indicating unit performs one stepwise rotation.
 2. A cyclometer clock comprising, a seconds-indicating unit rotated at a constant speed, an intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit driven by said seconds-indicating unit, a minutes-indicating unit and an hour-indicating unit both independently driven by said intermittent motion-transmitting and speed-reducing unit, an alarm unit actuated by said hour-indicating unit comprising a first drum manually settable angularly to set the alarm time of said alarm unit, a second drum driven by said hour-indicating unit and biased toward said first drum, both said first and second drums having means jointly defining means for enabling said second drum to move axially toward said first drum in dependence upon the angular position of said first drum for enabling the alarm unit and for moving axially away from said first drum for disenabling said alarm unit, said alarm unit having a vibrating member for effecting an alarm, and lever means enabled and disenabled by the axial movement of said second drum for enabling and disenabling said vibrating members thereby to enable and disenable the alarm unit.
 3. A cyclometer clock according to claim 2, in which means jointly defining means for enabling said second drum to move axially toward said first drum comprises a side of said first drum having angularly spaced recesses and bosses on an opposed side of said second drum received in said recesses and movable out of said recesses for moving said second drum axially away from said first drum as said second drum is rotatably driven.
 4. A cyclometer clock according to claim 3, in which said lever means comprises a pair of levers comprising a first lever sensing the position of said second drum and a second lever actuated by the first lever in dependence upon the axial position of said second drum. 